14Trees, a construction tech company jointly founded by Holcim and British International Investment (BII), has enlisted another high-profile backer to support its sustainable construction mission: Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund. 14Trees recently underwent a Series A-1 investment round, which saw more investment from Holcim and new investments from Amazon. The funding will enable the construction 3D printing firm to bring low-carbon data centers and large-scale 3D printed buildings to Europe and the United States.
14Trees was founded in 2016 with the goal of bringing sustainable and affordable building solutions to the continent of Africa. To date, the company has completed a number of projects, starting with the construction of the first 3D printed house in Africa. In this project, 14Trees constructed a house in Lilongwe, Malawi in just 12 hours. In 2021, it went on to open its first 3D printed school, also in Malawi, whose walls were printed in just 18 hours.
Manufacturing on Demand
3D printed model house in Nairobi, Kenya
Since then, the scale of its projects has ramped up: in early 2023, 14Trees revealed that in just ten weeks it had built the walls for 10 houses using a single 3D printing unit. These structures are part of its larger plan to build 52 homes in Kilifi, Kenya. Notably, the aforementioned projects were carried out using a COBOD 3D printer, however 14Trees has since launched its own proprietary machine, the IROKO, a mobile gantry system capable of printing multi-story structures.
With the investment from Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, 14Trees will be able to bring its IROKO platform and construction 3D printing expertise to other markets, including Europe and the United States. “We are excited to welcome Amazon as an investor and are delighted by Holcim’s follow-on investment and continued support,” said Francois Perrot, Managing Director at 14Trees. “This marks a key milestone, conviction of 14 Trees’ concept for delivering 3D printed homes, schools, and commercial real estate. We aim to work with leaders in innovation, technology and sustainability, such as Amazon, Holcim and BII, to deliver low-carbon and high-performance buildings with our 3D printing technology.”
The Climate Pledge Fund is a corporate venture program launched by tech giant Amazon with the goal of investing in innovative climate technology companies. The venture group, which was funded with an initial $2 billion, has to date invested in 31 startups across eight different countries. “We are delighted to invest in 14Trees, a tech-enabled business scaling an innovative technology from Africa to the world,” said Phoebe Wang, investment partner from the Climate Pledge Fund. “14Trees will collaborate with Amazon in advancing our strategic objective to deploy new sustainable materials and methods for low-carbon building.”
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Author: Tess Boissonneault
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